Requiem for a Dream

This film has always been haunting. I watched it with my sister when I was only 13 and am pretty sure its had something to do with my reluctance to experiment with drugs. The characters are all very easy to sympathize with - the lonely old lady, the two friends who depend on one another, and the couple who just want to create a life for themselves. To witness the devestation that drugs can wreak on these people who don't seem too different from ones self is a terrifying thing. For me the most alarming aspect (besides amputation...!) is the behavior of Harry's mother. She is just someone who has been trying to be extraordinary, happens to be prescribed an addictive pill, and eventually loses her mind. Perhaps its a personal thing, but I really feel as though this could happen to even the most innocent of people. She clearly had an obsessive personality and the fact that doctors are so prescription happy these days creates a dangerous combination that can lead to the downfall of any normal citizen. That is not to say that the other characters did not have a chance to be normal, but it was only their decisions that led them to their downfall. I cannot personally understand how people can learn to depend on things that inflict so much pain on themselves. For Marion to do what she did (and I'd rather not describe it in a blog) just shows how much of herself she lost not only to drugs but to the destructive relationship that she's developed with Harry. The movie is a terrifying account of the way people can lose focus on what's important and dilude themselves into needing pain.